Drag You Down Here
by seilleanmor
Summary: A post ep for 7x21 In Plane Sight. Kate flies to London to reassure herself that her family are safe. Works as a standalone, but I might add more in the future.


_This one's for Allie, because she yelled at me about it. Title is from the song 'London' by Ben Howard._

* * *

**Drag You Down Here**

* * *

The computer hums on the desk in front of her, the fan whirring in outrage after having been on for such a long time, and it feels like sandpaper against the raw edges of her nerves. Kate presses her palms against her thighs, but her legs still jerk as if severed from the rest of her and she barely lasts a minute before giving in.

Gates isn't here, and it only steels her resolve. Castle always says it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission, so tomorrow when her captain calls and asks where the hell she is, she'll say she's sorry. Sorry, but she couldn't possibly survive the ten days until her family comes home.

She uses her phone to book the flight and then slides into the car, her knuckles popping in protest at the force of her grip on the steering wheel. The city races past in a blur of colour, watered down with the sink of the sun into the belly of the earth, and the wash of pastel light soothes her. Enough that she manages to pack a bag, make sure she's got everything she's going to need.

Her blouse is clinging to her skin, the anxiety of the day making her clammy and too hot, and she hesitates a moment before stripping it off over her head. If she's changing, she might as well commit. Kate pulls on skinny jeans and a long sleeved cotton tee, pushes her feet into her chucks. The tongue gets caught at the side of her foot and she almost topples, has to sink down into sitting on the end of their bed and put the shoes on properly.

A jacket, her wallet and keys and phone hastily shoved into a purse, and she makes it almost to the door before she stops. Kate leaves her suitcase where it is in the middle of the living room - no one is here to trip over it - and moves back towards their bedroom. Her engagement ring is in a box on the dresser, nestled safe next to her mother's, and Kate slides it onto her finger.

She's doing this, flying to London on a reckless whim, as his wife. As Alexis' tentative friend. And the ring is part of that. She pats her pockets down to make sure she has everything, and on her way through the office she collects her passport from the drawer.

In the cab on the way to the airport her feet tap against the floor and the driver gives her a look in the rearview mirror, but she's just too jittery. Trembling with anxious anticipation.

Castle will be delighted - he cringed and whined like a puppy when she told him she couldn't go with him - but Alexis. . .Kate hadn't missed the girl's pleased little smile. Ever since she and Castle got together, she's put the work in to make sure she's never taking him away from his daughter, and now she's going to crash their father-daughter getaway.

Well, there's a seven hour flight in which to bolster her courage. She is his _wife_, and Alexis is a grown woman now. They're more than capable of sharing Castle's attention.

* * *

She doesn't sleep. It's an overnight flight, and with the time difference it's already eight am in London when the plane lands, but her system is still laced with adrenaline. From sitting helpless in the precinct as her family were thousands of feet in the air, risking their lives.

Kate really, really hates being useless. She's stopped trembling so much, but her brain feels hyper-alert like she's had too much caffeine even though she hasn't touched a drop in almost twelve hours. In the line for customs her weight shifts constantly from foot to foot, jacket draped over her arm because it's stupidly warm in the airport, and when she finally makes it through she half-stumbles down the walkway towards baggage claim.

Her suitcase is the third to appear and she sighs her relief, unable to stifle her grin. One hand hauls the case off of the conveyor belt even as the rest of her is already turning away, pushing through the crowd of people still waiting for their own luggage.

There are taxis lined up outside the building and she slides into the back of the first in the queue, leans forward to give the driver the address of Castle's hotel. Kate pillows her cheek against the window, eyes like grit, and she wonders if Rick and Alexis got any sleep last night. Their plane landed at midnight local time, and she knows they were intending to go straight to bed once they got to the hotel.

Her husband is more than used to jet lag after so many book tours, but with the excitement of the flight over, she imagines he hasn't gotten much more sleep than she has. When they pull up outside the hotel the driver unloads her luggage from the trunk and she tips him generously, so grateful for the easy journey.

If she doesn't see Castle soon, know for herself that he and Alexis are both just fine, she might fall down right here in the lobby. The man at the desk looks at her with some concern and she musters a smile, a palm braced against the surface to hold her body upright.

"Good morning, ma'am. Would you like to check in?" he asks kindly, and Kate can't help but smile at the lovely richness of his accent, the melodious wrap of it around the words.

"Uh, no, thank you. I don't have a reservation. My husband is staying here and I flew out to. . .surprise him." Her voice fades out on her, and she withers a little under the embarrassment. She doesn't want to be the clingy wife, but here she is anyway.

The man at the desk presses a few keys on the computer in front of him and then glances back at her, his smile not once wavering. It's a little creepy actually, the falseness of it, and she wants so badly to see the creases around Castle's eyes, his lopsided grin when he finds out she's here.

"If you can tell me his name and reservation number, I'll let you up there."

Kate rattles off the number from the itinerary he sent her, gives the guy Castle's name and he smiles, rummaging in a drawer before he comes up with a key. "Here you go, Mrs Castle. I hope the surprise goes well."

"Thank you," she smiles, dipping her head and trying not to run for the elevator. Her suitcase impedes that, dragging behind her, and she almost trips over it on her way into the elevator car. The exhaustion has her more graceless than she's been in a very long time, and Kate sinks against the wall and presses the button for Castle's floor. The upwards motion makes her stomach lurch and she realises suddenly that she is _starving_. Well, maybe if Castle and Alexis are up and dressed they could all go get some breakfast.

She feels disgusting, sweaty and gritty and awful, and she craves a shower so badly. Lovely lovely water cascading down over her and Castle's fingers working out the knots in her shoulders, slip-sliding over the plane of her back. The elevator doors peel open right as her eyes are slipping closed and she shakes herself, steps off and drags her suitcase down the length of the corridor. Outside the door to the room, Kate sucks in a breath through her teeth and bounces on her heels. The tension in her calves pops and releases and she's left standing in a puddle of it.

Kate slides the keycard into the slot in the door and the light turns from red to green; she opens the door and steps inside with her suitcase, closing it behind her and blinking hard to adjust to the half-light in the room. The blinds are slatted closed but the sun outside is so determined that it wriggles its way through the spaces and gives her enough light to see by. The space reminds her of their hotel room in Los Angeles a little. There's a living area in the middle and a bedroom on either side.

One of the doors is ajar enough to see inside and the sight of her husband sacked out on his front makes her heart roll over in her chest. Kate pries her fingers away from her case and shrugs out of her jacket. Draping it over the arm of the couch, she toes out of her shoes and pads through into Castle's room.

The curtains in here are thick and heavy, the darkness like velvet, and Kate feels like a huntress as she moves through the space and towards the bed. A knee to the mattress, and then she climbs up and crawls across the sheets to him.

For a moment, she debates the best way to do this, but she doesn't want to waste any more time. Wants him awake and kissing her. Kate sifts her fingers through his hair and trips down to tug gently on his earlobe. Her mouth skims his cheek, tongue darting out to taste the musk of sleep on him, and she hums.

"Castle, time to wake up. Wake up, babe."

His eyes peel open and he glances around himself, gaze shifting right over her for a moment. And then the rest of him comes awake and he sits upright, dislodging her from where she's leaning half over him. His hands cradle her face and his mouth smudges over hers, and Kate slides a knee over his lap and sinks down.

"You're here," he breathes, pulling out of their kiss to stare at her. "Kate. Wow. And. . .how?"

She laughs, shaking her head at him and smoothing her thumb underneath his eye. She leans in, nips her teeth at his eyebrow and crushes her chest against his. "I just kind of got on a plane. Couldn't wait ten days to see for myself that you guys are okay."

"You cut work?" She nods, and he crows with delight, his arms coming tight around her. "My wife is awesome!"

That has another laugh bubbling up out of her, richer than she ever knew it could sound before she loved him. "Your wife is _hungry_. You wanna get up and we can get breakfast?"

"Sure," he grins, sliding her off of him so he can climb out of bed. He takes a step away and then whirls back around and leans in to kiss her again, his tongue slicking inside. Her mouth tastes stale after so long in the plane, the recycled air always making her dehydrated, but she opens up for him like a flower turning its face toward the sun.

Their kiss stays chaste, both of them sleepy and not quite up to much else. When Castle breaks away from her, his lips brush a kiss to her cheek and then sweep upwards, to the crown of her head. "I'm gonna jump in the shower. Can you wake Alexis and see if she wants to come for breakfast?"

Kate swallows hard, more than a little daunted by that. She's fairly sure Alexis won't be happy to see her here, and Castle wants Kate to wake her up? His daughter has been known to be. . .a little grizzly, towards Kate. And that's when she's _not_ jetlagged.

Her mouth opens to argue, but she can already hear the shower thundering against the floor. Castle is eager as a little boy to get started with their day, and it softens her and steels her all at once. She loves Alexis, and there's no reason to be afraid of the girl.

She crosses the living space of the hotel suite in a few strides and knocks softly on Alexis' door. A moment of pause with her ear pressed to the wood, but there's no noise from inside and so Kate turns the handle and nudges her way inside the room.

Alexis sleeps with the covers tugged up almost over her head, a soft spill of her hair fanning out across the pillow. Kate sits next to the girl's hip and pulls the sheets down from around her face, smoothing the hair back from the pale moon of her face.

The girl wakes up a whole lot faster than her father, alert the moment her eyes are open, and she frowns into the darkness. "Kate? What are you doing here?"

"You two really scared me," Kate says carefully, shifting back to give Alexis enough room to sit up. The girl scrubs at her eyes and combs her fingers through her hair, arranging a pillow against the headboard so she can lean back against it. Her knees come up between them and she wraps her arms around them, but she hasn't yelled at Beckett yet, and surely that's a good thing? "I couldn't wait ten days to see you both, make sure that you're alright. I know that you were looking forward to this trip being just you and your dad, and I don't want to intrude on that."

"Kate-"

"No, it's alright," she shakes her head, reaching out to squeeze one of the girl's hands. Things have been better between them lately, enough that Castle's daughter actually came to Kate just last week, trusted her to take care of him. Even so, she has to watch her footing. "I won't stay the whole time. Probably only a couple of days. I just wanted to be able to hug you both."

Alexis regards her for a long moment and then she nods, a smile blossoming at one corner of her mouth. "I'm glad you're here. Dad's so much happier when he's with you. And you can entertain him when I'm hanging out with my friends."

"As long as you're sure you don't mind?"

Getting to her knees in the bed, Alexis slides her arms around Kate's shoulders and squeezes. It makes her breath catch, and it's a moment before she manages to return the girl's embrace. "I don't mind, Kate, really. You're a part of this family. You don't need my permission to be here."

The emotion of it rolls over her head and she chokes down a sob, presses her face to Alexis' shoulder. That's how Castle finds them, and from over his daughter's shoulder Kate watches his face flood with a joy that is clean and pure like lovely sunlight.

He takes a moment in the doorway to observe, and then he comes and wraps them both up in the crush of his arms. His mouth flirts with Kate's cheek and she leans in to his warmth, feels like rolling over and exposing her belly to the sun.

"My girls," her husband murmurs, dropping a kiss to the crown of each of their heads before he lets them go. "Are you joining us for breakfast, Alexis?"

His daughter crosses her legs underneath herself and sweeps her hair over her shoulder, grinning at her father. "Sure, Dad. Family breakfast in London. Let's do it."

Kate slips out of the room as discretely as she can manage, wanting to give Alexis the time to tell her father that she's not happy about this. Ask him to make Kate go back to New York. Only, after the deep rumble of her husband's voice comes Alexis', and Kate has to lean against the wall next to the door and catch her breath.

"I'm happy she's here, Dad. It's nice for us to all be together, and Kate is fun. I don't mind at all."

The girl shoos her father away then, wanting space to shower and get dressed, and Castle comes out of his daughter's room and finds Kate still reeling. He pauses, taking in the breathless amazement her face is lit with, and then he smiles and reaches for her hand. "She loves you, Kate. You're wonderful."

In her socked feet, Kate arches onto tiptoe and kisses him, her fingers curling at his ear to hold him in place. He's smiling so wide that the touch of their mouths crumbles and then his arms wrap at her waist and he spins her around, sending a cascade of their laughter through the room. He squeezes tight when he sets her back on her feet, only letting go to tuck her hair back behind her ear and touch his thumb to the corner of her mouth.

Their eyes meet and his soften, warm and tender on hers. He watches her for a long moment and then he straightens up and shares a conspiring grin with her, heading for his jacket where it's hanging next to the door. He rummages in the pocket for a moment and comes up with a tiny bottle, grinning so wide as he lifts it to show her.

"You want some tequila? I stole it from the plane."


End file.
